Cali’s Natural Food is Back to Seven Days a Week

Sarah Cutler

August 10, 2012

After cutting back to three days a week in 2011, Cali’s Natural Foods is ready to bounce back to a seven day work week. For locals this means a year-round, seven-days-a-week farmers market.

“We identify the highest-quality food by farmers that really care about what they are doing,” said Cali’s Natural Food Owner Ian Brandt. “They put their life and their heart into what they are producing and we are able to buy from those kinds of people. By buying from us, you are also supporting the local culture of farming.”

Brandt noted that a lot of the farmers who provide produce to Cali’s are the same farmers who set up shop at the different farmers markets around Utah. And according to the Salt Lake City Corporation Division of Sustainability and the Environment, more than 90 percent of Cali’s produce during the summer of 2011 was grown in Utah.

Bulk coffee is brought in from Café Ibis, pomegranates from St. George, pecans from Toquerville and micro-greens straight from the Avenues of Salt Lake City. “One of the bigger values we offer is taking the guess work out of shopping. We have done the research on the best products,” Brandt said.

The market, located at 389 W. 1700 South, Ste. C in Salt Lake City, sells a wide variety of items including flours, sweeteners, produce, gluten-free products and specialty foods found in the recipes at Sage's Cafe, Vertical Diner and Cafe SuperNatural, local restaurants owned and operated by Brandt.

Most of the products are offered in bulk, sans the packaging. Bringing in bags or jars from home to pick up produce from Cali’s gets consumers an extra gold star for sustainability.

“Everything we do is focused on the sustainable market,” he said. Brandt has a zero-waste model that is in place at Cali’s Natural Foods, Sage's Cafe, Vertical Diner and Cafe SuperNatural. Cardboard, paper, plastic and aluminum are all recycled while any food waste is composted.